What's the effect of Hit on 17?

There are plenty of discussions on the differences in advantage of common rules — although most of them are for Basic Strategy only. Here you will see exactly where the rules make a difference. Each of the charts on this page shows the change in advantage for each of the possible hands caused by a rule change. For example, this chart shows the difference between H17 and S17. The H17 rule helps some hands, but hurts more. Wherever you see a bar point up, the hand has a higher advantage with H17. Where you see the bar point down, H17 hurts the hand. The red bars are hands where the dealer has an ace. H17 is bad news in these cases because the dealer has a soft hand and a second chance to improve a soft-17. Note the long red bar at player 18 vs. dealer A. You have an 18 and the dealer has a soft hand. If the dealer has a soft-17 he would normally be stuck with it but with H17, he has another chance to beat your hand. Now look at the cyan (light blue) bars. These are dealer upcard of six and are better for you with H17 against stiff hands (12-16). This is because you will stand with this hand and hope that the dealer busts. The dealer is more likely to bust with H17. On the other hands, 17-20 versus dealer six are worse with H17 since the dealer gets an extra chance to beat you if he has an ace in the hole.

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 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger